The upside potential is exactly why they offered 14x revenue - they had to sweeten the pot and make sure that they incentivize you to move <i>now</i> as opposed to later. They are willing to pay a little more now in exchange for insuring that they don't miss out, or miss a huge inflection point.<p>However, bear in mind that as time goes on, and there's more data about monthly run rate, that multiple will likely go down.<p>First, as time goes on, it will become increasingly less likely that you will "pop", or have a huge hockey stick of growth. Part of the multiple is designed to get you out of the game before you hit that inflection point.<p>Second, many companies fall down once they try to scale their business. It requires a different set of skills, often different employees, and makes it a lot more likely that you'll miss on execution. Once you have a few quarters in a row of ~2% growth instead of 5%, your valuation will drop dramatically.<p>Third, the market moves around you. Even if you're continuing to grow, what your competitors do can influence your valuation, to your betterment or detriment.<p>I'm not saying that the author made the wrong decision, only that it's always easier to say, "Well, if we keep growing, and wait another year, we can get acquired for 2X more!". Heck, a year from now, that acquirer themselves might not exist anymore.<p>I think that <i>if</i> you expect you'll want to exit the business at some point in the next few years, <i>if</i> you are fortunate enough to get a more than fair offer where all of your employees and investors would see it as a win financially, you need a really compelling argument <i>not</i> to take it.